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Olatunji, S O, Olawumi, T O and Aje, I O (2017) Rethinking Partnering among Quantity-Surveying Firms in Nigeria. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(11).

Rudeli, N, Santilli, A, Puente, I and Viles, E (2017) Statistical Model for Schedule Prediction: Validation in a Housing-Cooperative Construction Database. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(11).

Tavakolan, M and Etemadinia, H (2017) Fuzzy Weighted Interpretive Structural Modeling: Improved Method for Identification of Risk Interactions in Construction Projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(11).

Thabet, W and Lucas, J (2017) Asset Data Handover for a Large Educational Institution: Case-Study Approach. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(11).

van den Berg, M, Voordijk, H, Adriaanse, A and Hartmann, T (2017) Experiencing Supply Chain Optimizations: A Serious Gaming Approach. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(11).

Wanberg, J, Javernick-Will, A and Taylor, J E (2017) Mechanisms to Initiate Knowledge-Sharing Connections in Communities of Practice. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(11).

  • Type: Journal Article
  • Keywords: Knowledge management; Knowledge transfer; Networks; Organizational issues;
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0733-9364
  • URL: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001399
  • Abstract:
    Within many construction and engineering organizations, communities of practice (CoPs) have become an important means for managing knowledge. They are employed to connect employees with technical specialists, which should reduce repeated mistakes, improve technical practice, and generate thought leadership. While organizations often implement CoPs as a means for coordinating specialist knowledge, very little is known about how professionals actually locate and connect with one another, making it difficult for organizations to employ CoPs effectively. To better understand how professionals identify and connect with colleagues, this research first conducted social network analysis to identify existing connections within three intraorganizational CoPs comprised of 1,791 members in two organizations, and then conducted and analyzed 77 interviews about dyadic connections to determine how individuals within these CoPs connected. From this analysis, four mechanisms of connection were identified, including organizational control, organizational opportunity, social networks, and non-person-centered searching. These connection mechanisms include a hybrid of social and organizational structures, reinforcing the need to strategically create and manage CoPs in project-based organizations. More specifically, these conclusions suggest that managerial control within CoPs is still an important mechanism to facilitate knowledge-sharing connections within distributed CoPs.